How to Bulk Edit the Category of Multiple Posts in WordPress

Posted in Tutorials

Suppose you need to change the category of a multiple posts.  It would certainly be nice if you can make the change all at the same time without having to go into each post and edit them.

With WordPress bulk edit, you can.

In WordPress dashboard, go to Posts -> All Posts and select all the posts you want to change.  Under the “Bulk Action” droplist, select “Edit” and click “Apply” …

In the Bulk Edit panel, select the category you want all the select post to go into and click update…

So that is how you bulk edit to associate a category to the selected posts.

Is there Bulk Edit to remove categories from multiple posts at once?

However as of WordPress 3.8, there is no bulk edit to remove a category from the selected posts.  In other words, bulk edit can add a category, but not remove a category.  Perhaps there is a plugin.

One possible workaround is to delete the category by going to “Posts -> Categories”.  Deleting the category will remove that category from all posts (selected or not selected).  If you need that category on some of the existing posts, add that category and then bulk edit to associate selected posts to that category.

Alas, the delete category only works if the category is NOT the default “Uncategoried”.   That category can not be deleted.  Which is why it is a good idea to always select a category for your post at the time of posting.  If that is the case, remove the Uncategorized from each of the post individually.  You can use “Quick Edit” from the post listing page.  It is not as fast a “bulk edit” but faster than editing each post.

 

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